By Dan Feldman

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

Dan Feldman writes for the Detroit Pistons blog PistonPowered. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. PistonPowered writers will contribute a column every Friday here. Contact Dan anytime at pistonpowered@gmail.com or on Twitter @pistonpowered.

The Detroit Pistons, once again, let the NBA trade deadline pass without making a deal.

But for the first time in years, that’s not a huge disappointment.

Once the Pistons traded Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye for Jose Calderon a few weeks ago, another trade seemed unlikely, in part, because that trade already advanced the franchise significantly.

Calderon arrived too late to make a difference this year – the Pistons will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season, their longest post-season drought in 30 years – but his expiring contract might mean a bigger difference in the seasons to come. By standing pat Thursday, the Pistons confirmed their arc.

They’re heading into this summer – the Summer of Truth – with everything to prove and the assets to make nearly anything happen.

The Pistons committed themselves to this summer when they sent a first-round pick to the Charlotte Bobcats just to rid themselves of Ben Gordon’s contract a year earlier. They upped the ante by dumping Prince’s long-term contract, and they called any raises by silently letting the trade deadline pass.

Joe Dumars’ critics still point to his flubbed rebuild in the summer of 2009, and his supporters blame Karen Davidson’s sale of the team for interfering with Dumars’ plan. The truth lies somewhere between with Dumars’ reputation hanging in the balance.

He’ll have a tremendous chance to prove himself during the Summer of Truth.

The Pistons will have a lottery pick it can use on a player like Victor Oladipo, Trey Burke or Otto Porter. They’ll have cap space to sign someone like O.J. Mayo, Josh Smith and/or J.J. Redick or trade for highly paid veterans like Danny Granger, Luol Deng and/or Eric Gordon.

A lot of time has been wasted lately discussing what Dumars does well, separate arguments formed about his drafting, trading and signings. But managing a team is one tangled web of transactions.

Draft picks can be traded for veterans. Cap space can be used to acquire draft picks. Veterans can be shed for more cap space.

Really, it doesn’t matter how the Pistons acquire better players. Their last championship came thanks to two players they signed through free agency (Ben Wallace* and Chauncey Billups), two players they traded for (Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace) and one player they drafted (Tayshaun Prince).

*Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins were technically traded for Grant Hill, but all three were free agents. Hill decided to sign with the Orlando Magic, and Wallace and Atkins decided to sign with Detroit. The three-player sign-and-trade was merely a formality.

The impetus is on Dumars simply to acquire better players, players who can upgrade what’s already a promising core.

Greg Monroe is on the verge of becoming an All-Star, and Andre Drummond’s potential is even higher. Brandon Knight and Kyle Singler are fine young pieces. If the Pistons get a ready-to-go wing or two, re-signing Calderon could push the team deeper in the playoffs.

It’s a lot to navigate, and it must happen this summer.

The diminishing protection on the pick owed to the Bobcats (top-eight in 2014, top-one in 2015 and unprotected in 2016) demands the Pistons don’t prolong their rebuild. The longer the Pistons remain bad, the greater the risk they send a valuable draft pick to Charlotte.

In theory, the Pistons could have advanced this process prior to yesterday’s trade deadline, but they didn’t. Now, they’re left to run out the clock on the season’s final 26 games.